Tuesday, July 23, 2013

These little babies were photographed during the apple orchard shoot that Greta (Greta Kenyon Photography) and Shaye (On My Hand) organised a few months back and I've been working at perfecting the recipe since - that's a lot of donut testing. We spent the afternoon at Ataahua styling and taking photos of apple punch, honey, caramel, donuts and a delicious apple and oat stack that's about due to be featured in the upcoming Magnolia Rouge. Yay! Watch this space for that recipe but in the meantime, make these!

Styling: On My Hand
Photo: Greta Kenyon Photography

Baked Apple Cider Donuts

Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, Weds 24th July 2013

Donuts and apple cider, a genius American combination. These
light, doughy, baked donuts are gently spiced and have a good hint of apple
tang. They take just 8 minutes to bake and are a great alternative to
traditional cakes and cupcakes, with less sugar. I purchased donut pans from
Culinary Council in Gate Pa (my go-to place for anything kitchen related) and
they produced perfect round donuts. If you don’t want to be the proud owner of
donut pans like I am, use a muffin pan instead although I don’t think the end result will have quite the same donut charm. These are great as is and even better warmed with a
scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Thanks to On My Hand - Props, Styling & Flora for the styling (without Shaye most of my photos would look incredibly average) and to Greta Kenyon Photography for capturing my sweet treats so beautifully.

1 ½ cups
Apple Cider (I used Cider House Scrumpy)

75g
wholemeal flour

75g cake
flour*

½ teaspoon
baking powder

¾ teaspoon
baking soda

Pinch of
salt

1 teaspoon
cinnamon

¼ teaspoon
nutmeg

¼ teaspoon
allspice

1 egg

70ml canola
or coconut oil

1 teaspoon
vanilla

50g white
sugar

25g brown
sugar

Boil the apple cider in a pot over high heat
until it reduces down to half a cup (around 10mins) then leave to cool. Preheat
oven to 200°C and
grease your donut pan. Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk
the egg, oil, vanilla and sugars together – add the reduced cider once it’s
cool. Pour wet ingredients over the dry and mix until just combined. Spoon the
mixture into a piping bag and pipe into the donut pan (if you don’t have a
piping bag use a zip-lock bag and snip the corner), filling the donut holes
about 2/3 full. This recipe yields around 8 donuts. Bake for 6-8mins, until
they spring back when touched. While the donuts are still hot toss them in a
bowl of cinnamon sugar (made by mixing white sugar with cinnamon).

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Aaaagh. This pie is really really good. I didn't think peanut butter as a dessert flavour was going to be my thing. Turns out it is. I'm pretty sure this pie would be almost everyone's thing at dessert. Except if you're allergic to peanuts, then I'd recommend you avoid it. Bummer.

Photo: Swift & Click

Peanut Butter Pie(Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, Weds 3rd July 2013)

It’s Independence Day tomorrow and as I have family in America,
including an adorable niece and nephew who are growing up with cute American
accents, I thought we’d make July ‘American inspired’ dessert month! I’m all
for embracing new food cultures and even though we have plenty of American
themed burger joints to indulge ourselves in, there is much more to American
cuisine than the golden arches. The desserts over the next weeks only touch on
this so I encourage you to do your own foodie research.

Our first American dessert is this indulgent Peanut Butter Pie. It
tastes like a Snickers bar - rich, creamy, gooey, peanutty. Most Peanut Butter
Pie recipes online use ‘Cool Whip’ (whipped frosting) as an ingredient but I’m
happy to say that this one doesn’t. Eating Cool Whip is a little like eating
plastic. Eating this pie, thankfully, is not. Thanks to Rach from Swift & Click for the photos!

Throw the Oreos into a food
processor and whiz to crush. Pour in the melted butter and whizz again. Press
into the bottom and sides of a 23cm cake tin to form the crust. Melt the
chocolate and spread over the base, sprinkle with nuts and chill in the fridge. Whip the
cream and keep chilled. Beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until combined.
Beat in the icing sugar then the caramel condensed milk and lemon juice, beat
until smooth. Mix in a third of the whipped cream then fold in the rest. Pour
into the base and chill for at least 2hrs or overnight. To make serving easier,
freeze the pie for 30mins before slicing. Top with extra whipped cream, nuts
and drizzled chocolate.

Weekly Tip: Make your
own caramel by boiling an unopened can of regular condensed milk in a pot of
water for 2.5 hours. Make sure the can is always covered by water (otherwise it might explode - hot caramel all over the kitchen = not a good thing!) and cool
before opening.

Hello. I'm Danielle and I have a serious love of food. Particularly cake (if you couldn't tell already). This is my little foodie adventure in words. If you'd like to say hi or talk to me about cake you can reach me at hello@spongedrop.co.nz.